Yet all thoughts of Alex fled her mind as she raced across the windswept fields outside the chateau, the brilliant moonlight seeming to infuse her limbs with the limitless energy of dream as she dashed past the bodies of the fallen, little more than shadowy silhouettes, fading even as she left the chateau and the field of battle far behind her, racing madly for the outskirts of the great wood, desperately striving to keep her panic at bay.
Malek. His gentle brown eyes haunted her heart even as she raced at a breakneck pace for the forests edge, a pace that would have amazed the few brave souls making their way through the oddly brilliant night, had she appeared any more real than an odd gust of chilly wind blowing past them.
She heaved a great sigh of relief as she crossed the boundary of the great forest at last, bursting through foliage that instantly opened itself up to her, welcoming her presence with the gentle touch of twig and leaf, rustling against her as if laughing within the caress of a gentle spring breeze. Jess smiled, infused with a deep heartfelt love for the arboreal wonder before her, majestic trees reaching for the very skies, arching their vast canopy high overhead to grand effect, Jess suddenly feeling as if she strode through a pristine palace of glorious wood and vine.
She allowed herself to wander within the vast woodland cathedral, trusting her heart to lead her to that which she desperately sought, even as she made her way towards the hot beacon of discord she sensed tramping through the woods with the grace of a rabid boor.
It was at that instant, while feeling the forest’s disquiet, that the terrible nature of her purpose washed through her once more. She raced forward, dreamlike footsteps hardly marking the loamy forest floor, panic and fury washing through her in equal measure.
Her beloved friend was dying, and the enemy who had ordered Malek’s butchery fled within her woods even now, his every stumbling footstep filled with a foul wrongness that sickened her gentle forest.
Malek. She could feel his strong, warm presence beside her, even as she ran madly through the woods. Her ears caught the catch in his ragged breath even as she raced across the mist laden forest floor with gazelle-like speed.
“Jess, you must hurry." Jess was struck by the uncharacteristic alarm in Twilight's tone. She could feel her heart pounding with a terrible urgency, almost as if she sensed the sands of her closest friend's life slipping through her fingers. It suddenly terrified her, the thought of never being able to grin back at his gentle dark-eyed smile, of never again laughing at his quips, touched by the sardonic humor that hid his fierce affection and utter loyalty to those he loved.
She fought to choke back her mounting panic, forcing herself onwards, furiously tearing through the woods as she sensed the source of all the grief and sorrow she and her friends had suffered stumbling through the trees just ahead.
Galeck Borson.
She snarled as she finally caught sight of the once elegantly dressed nobleman. Aristocratic features that had gazed upon her with such bemused superiority but a short time before were now replaced by naked terror, breath coming out in heaving gasps even as his lips were stretched out in a panicked rictus. Jess could see how his body shook with fear and exhaustion even as he swung his sap stained horseman’s saber against the underbrush that seemed to all but entangle him. Foliage Jess slipped through with utter ease.
“Galeck Borson!” Jessica’s voice rang like a bell through the forest. The very leaves shook with the sound of her voice. The man before her cried out in sudden panic, stumbling around, gazing at Jess with an expression equal parts horror and awe.
“Who’s there? By the Abyss, who dares call my name?” Hands shaking with exhaustion even as he held his saber at the ready, Galeck trembled before her. His breath hitched as widened eyes made out her luminous form, and for all that Jess was naked as the goddess herself, her smile was cold and fearless.
She could feel the leaves themselves coat her in their armor, her clenching hands suddenly grasping a stiffened knot of vines covered in wickedly sharp thorns. The hot sting as they pierced her palm was a welcoming fire that transformed her frenzied terror at the slow death of her beloved friend into a hot, welcoming rage as she faced the source of so much woe.
The whip of vine and thorn she held slowly turned darkest crimson, stiffening to a length very much like the blade she favored above all others. With a grim smile, Jess allowed the thorns to embrace both her palms, holding her weapon in Ochs, point aimed squarely for Galeck Borson's heart.
Jessica’s laughter was fae, feeling like a wild creature in truth. Naked, save for armaments of leaf and moonlight that glistened like dew upon her pristine skin, the sigils carved upon her flesh glowed the hot silvery white of a blazing star. She strode forward, compelled by a terrible thirst she aimed to quench.
Perhaps it showed in her eyes. Galeck's wheezing form paled visibly, his sword trembling as she approached. "Stay back, whatever you are, for I have powers at my disposal! Don't think you can cross one such as I without paying the price, forest spirit!"
Jess said nothing as she approached with blade raised high, pinning him with her gaze.
He snarled then, barking out one final curse in a desperate bid to compel her.
“Stop! Serve me, spirit wench! You are mine, body and soul!” His eyes suddenly blazed with fierce triumph, and Jess sensed that underneath his panic had been a cold calculation, holding back his magic strike until that very moment. As if proximity heightened his prowess, for certainly his eyes glowed a curious silver even as he shook with exhaustion, having expended himself utterly.
Jess, for her part, had stopped cold, her blade of thorns tearing through the air for but a moment, and she made no further move to approach.
Galeck chuckled softly, for all that it transformed near instantly to a wheeze. “So it worked. My gift can compel even a spirit of the woodlands. Fitting, as I knew my gift had no mortal limits, merely needing to be fed.” His smile was bleak. “The irony then, of needing such careful sacrifices to replenish my gift. The compulsion of strangers who would interrupt or discover bodies best left to eternal slumber makes it hardly worth the effort, in civilized lands.
"Yet your sacrifice, dear nymph, far from any chance met soul, will feed my gift anew! Perhaps it is dark fortune indeed that has led to our chance meeting. But first, you will free me from these roots that seek constantly to trip and hinder me, and grant me safe passage through these cursed woods!”
It was then that the forest seemed to reverberate with a howl, dark and dreadful. A mournful cry that shook the very trees. Galeck’s satisfied smirk melted into exhausted terror once more.
“What is that sound? By all that is infernal, I command you to tell me, forest spirit!”
Yet the fae woman dressed in leaves and moonlight only smiled, and perhaps he sensed that all was not as he had hoped. “Tell me, forest creature, what is the source of that howl?” His voice, now more a plea than a command, trembled as he spoke, showing the desperate fear Galeck barely kept at bay.
A second howl shook the forest, trees visibly swaying, as if trembling before the force of a mighty gale. In that instant, the brilliant moonlit sky was replaced with pitch blackness, save for twin flashes of crimson, bringing to mind nothing so much as a pair of ancient stars rupturing in the unspeakable vastness of the inky heavens above.
Twilight purred. “I see our brother-in-arms has decided to join us at last.”
Jessica’s grin was savage. “That is the sound of your death, Galeck Borson! By tooth and thorn, you shall fall!” With that she flowed from perfect stillness to blistering speed, lashing out in a fierce Zornhau strike with her blade of thorns, Galeck lurching back and crying out in alarm.
It was then that the darkness began to take shape, pooling into a liquid blackness that swirled into the shape of a shadowy wolf to Galeck's rear, even as the man's fine silken garments, shredded by Jess's fae blade slid off his flesh. The cuts of a dozen thorns that had whipped across him from shoulder to waist immediately welled with b
lood that hardened to an odd cluster of bumps.
With a shuddering gasp, Galeck looked down at his injury, his stupefied expression turning to one of horror as he saw those hard crimson bumps unfurl into perfectly formed rose blossoms. Each and every one the color of freshly drawn blood.
He screamed and strove desperately to tear off the blossoms, grimacing and gasping as each parted with a sucking squelch, hurling it futilely at the wolf-like creature of shadow slowly circling him even as he raised his shaking blade up high to face it, for all that he had fallen to the ground in his terror. "Stay back!" he screamed. "Stay back, foul creature of Hell! It is not my time yet. It is not my time!" He started to sob in earnest, tears of panic streaming freely down his cheeks as he begged.
“Please, my master, I only need a bit more time! I but need to get the final pieces together to bring our great machination into effect. You know well the power this will give you, my master! All the lives at your beck and call!"
The wolf of darkest shadow grinned, flashing wicked teeth the color of moonlight, even as its twin orbs of fire gazed at the pleading Galeck stumbling away. It chose not to strike, however, lunging instead for the crimson roses Galeck had madly torn from his bleeding body, gulping them down like the choicest cuts of meat.
For but an instant Jess could see Galeck held onto desperate hope, then he saw the roses slip through the beast of shadow, each petal now bone white. Perhaps he understood then what it all meant, for he began to scream even as fresh roses of crimson blossomed upon his wounds.
Jess laughed then, her fae expression a cold and terrible thing. “How does it feel, Galeck? You who would stand astride the world, sacrificing any fool who crossed you, only to die here, alone and unloved, in the middle of these woods?” With that Jess lashed out, her blade of thorns whipping forth with breathtaking speed, neatly slicing open both her enemy's wrists.
With a fresh panicked cry Galeck dropped his saber, the weapon falling harmlessly to the loamy forest floor and near instantly buried under roots and vines. His wrists were bleeding profusely, and in but seconds, his arms were utterly covered with brilliantly blooming roses, each and every one the color of his blood.
He blinked then, gazing at her with a mixture of horror and disbelief. "I know you," he whispered. "The Calenbry girl! My sources said you were a bladeswoman with but a knack for plants. But I saw you! I saw the dark wrath that infected you when you butchered my men, resisted my magic. And this?" He gesticulated in panic, struggling madly to tear off the crimson roses slowly covering every inch of his flesh, his face paling visibly, as if he were being drained of his very life's blood. "Angels and demons, girl, what have you done to me? How can you do this?”
“What is this great machination, Galeck?” Jess asked, softly stroking the shadowy fur of the terrible hound growling beside her, even as it lapped up the bloody crimson roses Galeck madly tore from his body, till each and every petal was bone white.
Galeck blinked in panicked confusion. “You mean you don’t know? Angels and demons, you must know, steeped in darkness as you are.” He flashed a hopeful smile. “I’ll tell you what, Jessica de Calenbry. I will do better than tell you our plans, I will make you a player! A grand player in the game of power the true masters of Erovering play, even now! I will instruct you in the strengths and weaknesses of all the pieces on the board, my lady!”
Galeck looked up at Jess, pleading with his eyes for his very life, his very soul. “But spare my life, and I will teach you utter mastery of this game! But capture the pieces in play, allowing me to live and serve, and one day you might seize the very throne! Imagine, my lady, true victory! Utter power! The ability to crush all your foes beneath your feet!” His voice trembled with sudden, desperate hope. “But spare me, great and terrible mistress, and I can show you the way!”
Jess's laughter rang through the woods, cold and discordant. "You speak as if I don't already have access to that power. You speak as if I can't crush this kingdom entire underneath my feet, any time I wish to do so!"
The trees shuddered at the sound of her voice. The ground itself began to shake. Jess closed her eyes and imagined she could almost feel the very heartbeat of the land. She was suddenly filled with the terrible, glorious sense that if she but wished it, she could claim everything in this realm. Every fiefdom, every barony, every rock beneath her feet, every tree arching high overhead.
And every living soul.
It was all hers.
All of it.
She heard a dreadful chuckle then, discordant even to her tone-deaf ears. The voice, of course, was her own. A terrible storm howled, gale force winds rocking through the trees, and beneath her closed lids Jess sensed the brilliant flash of lightning. She had the sickening sense that she was suddenly on a precipice, profound and terrible, and about to fall over. About to lose herself to shrieking winds of utter madness, even as malevolent shadows began to whisper secrets dark and terrible into her howling ears.
*Jess* She shuddered, her hand reflexively latching onto the warm fur coat of a beast fierce and noble, gently pulling her back from that awful ledge. She heard a soft purr as well, felt Twilight gently stroke her tear stained cheek with his own.
“It is not time for that yet, my mistress,” Twilight gently purred into her ear. “Open your eyes and release your Hound. Let us finish this, so you and Malek may awaken fresh and whole, this no more than a passing dream.”
Jess opened her eyes.
Beheld the man gazing at her in speechless horror, every inch of his torso and arms covered in crimson roses, hands raised in mute supplication.
Felt the warm fur of the beast beside her, carved of darkest night, shaking with his need to feed, but hours or moments away from death.
She released her hound.
And then Galeck Borson truly began to scream.
“How utterly fitting,” Twilight purred, gazing with slit-eyed amusement at the shrieking, stumbling, shaking man futilely trying to ward off the predations of darkest shadow, even as the wolf-like specter lunged, shooting forth like an arrow, his terrible teeth disemboweling the shrieking man who was no more able to block liquid darkness than he could a howling storm.
Yet from the grisly wound no blood spurted forth. Only a massive shower of crimson flowers burst from bloodless skin, as if Galeck himself were no more than an animated vessel filled with soil and sprouting plants.
The broken and defeated diabolist gazed down at his hideous wounds, at his shredded abdomen pouring forth naught but an endless profusion of blossoming roses and forest loam, letting loose a shriek that made even Jessica’s icy heart tremble with the memory of pity, though her enemy's desperate, pleading eyes did not stay her hand as her terrible hound of shadow sunk his silver teeth deep into Galeck's neck.
Galeck, sightless eyes wide with horrors only he could see, emitted his death rattle. Each and every one of the flowers still budding from his flesh turned bone white. Within but a handful of sputtering heartbeats, his once sturdy frame had shriveled to an emaciated husk covered in gloriously blooming roses of palest hue, rustling softly in what was now naught but a gentle evening breeze.
Jess flashed her hound a pleased smile, his shadowy form now shimmering with highlights of vibrant crimson as he bounded to her side once more. She bent down and rubbed her face in his soft coat of fur even as he leaned his shadowy form against her, relieved beyond all words. Somehow, she knew that her beloved Malek would be safe now.
Jess took a deep breath, standing up once more, fingertips gently caressing her hound’s shoulder, even as she prepared to leave this place and all its memories behind.
“You did well, my mistress,” Twilight commended from his favorite spot upon her shoulder, troubled not at all by the shimmering leaves that danced about her, a diaphanous gown of moonlight and dream. “Your silly Hound is well on his way to a full recovery.”
A bemused huff from the great shadowy beast by Jessica’s side made it quite clear he was following the conversat
ion, Twilight favoring the hound with toothy grin of his own. “Really, Malek. Pinned under a horse? You? I shudder to think what your beloved Eloquin would have to say, you getting lanced so easily.”
The hound in question actually managed to look a bit shamefaced, quite a feat in a creature of Shadow, Jess thought, even as she scratched a purring Twilight. “I’m just glad it’s over at last.” She gave a relieved sigh, gazing at the trees around her with heartfelt gratitude, knowing that somehow the forest itself had come to her aid.
It was then that she heard the plaintive cries of a young boy.
20
I'm afraid it's not quite over at that." Twilight's words were oddly solemn, his brilliant sapphire gaze seeming to pierce her very soul.
“Twilight, what are you talking about?" Jess's heart raced. For some reason, she absolutely dreaded the thought of turning around.
Twilight's gaze was unrelenting. "It is your choice, Jess. You can either turn around and see what there is to see, or walk straight ahead, through these woods, and be free of the burden of old memories, promises made long ago."
He peered thoughtfully at her, which for some reason made her feel even more terrible than she did already, refusing to face the pleading sobs behind her.
“You really don’t have to look, Jess. It remains your choice, as it always was. And I promise you, the moment your head once again rests upon the soft downy pillow waiting for you in the chateau below, you shall wake up beside your shieldbrother once more, never to be plagued by even the slightest memory of what we would leave behind here this eve.
Jess shuddered, blinking away sudden tears. Her terrible wrath of but moments before... no more real than a dream within a dream. Now all she felt was sorrow, her ears tormented by the softly sobbing voice behind her.
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